It is the 1st December today, which means that I am starting to get pretty excited about Christmas! The tree has gone up in my house and I’ve opened the first door on my advent calendar. I can’t wait!

I have bought a few bits and pieces recently which I thought I’d share with you so here is my accessories haul. Everything shown below I bought from Primark except the notebook which I got from Waterstones. I really liked so many of the home wear things in Primark recently I had to stop myself from buying much more!

First up is this beanie which I love, and is especially appropriate for the cold weather. The weather seems to have turned from lovely to freezing within a few days here and winter has definitely arrived. Not that I mind! I really enjoy layering and wearing thick comfy clothes during winter (my fav being cosy fluffy socks). This white beanie has stripes of shiny silver running along it and is really cosy and nice to wear especially to keep my ears warmer on those cold nights. I got it for just £3 – a steal!

Ah, here are some of those aforementioned fluffy socks that I was talking about. Amazingly comfy, soft, warm and with a little Robin on too. This is actually a pack of two pairs, the other set are grey and have smaller robins all over. They are “slipper socks” which I’ve never had before (I don’t think) which I think makes them thicker than normal socks and they are lovely to wear. I got these for £2.50.

Next is a beauty blender dupe sponge for £1.50. I bought it to replace the one I got from H&M, which I do really like, but is an absolute pain to clean. On first impressions of comparing the two, the one from Primark is slightly harder and less soft when applying make up. I honestly think the H&M one is better for applying make up also so I may have to but another one from there instead.

I absolutely love this little penguin coin purse. They had a few different ones, all with different animals on but I like this little fella the best. I have started to use coin purses much more now as taking my normal purse around everywhere gets a bit heavy when I want to just leave the house quickly and have only what I need with me. I think this is just adorable and I can’t wait to use it. (£2)

I thought this necklace was really gorgeous and for £4 I had to get it. It’s delicate gold leaves and woven material pattern really appealed to me and I’m sure I’m going to get a lot of use out of it as it will go with a lot of outfits and situations. I need more statement necklace pieces and although this isn’t the most outlandish necklace you may have ever seen, it’s a start for me!

Okay so last think I bought from Primark were these silver rings. I bought them in a set of 6 for £2. I won’t be wearing them all together but separately they are all very delicate and look great for such a price. The only thing with these rings is the sizing, as I got a small (I’m usually a medium I believe I don’t buy rings that often) and they are still a bit loose on some of my fingers which means I’m having to just check that they are still there every so often and haven’t fallen off. Still I really like them and have been wearing them every day since I purchased them.

The last of my purchases is this moleskine notebook. I have had several of them before and a sketchbook and there’s just something about the quality and feel of these that I adore. I bought this to replace my last one. (£13.99)

Okay so those were all the things that I bought. I hope you enjoyed taking a look!

Sadly the month of October has now ended and it’s time for another monthly favourite run down!

I’m going to start with my gold reindeer antlers necklace from asianicandy. I may have featured it previously and I’ve definitely put in in some of my other posts but I still love it, I wear it all the time it seems. So many people have complimented me on it and sometimes I even get Game of Thrones/House Baratheon comparisons. I added an extra tiger clip to the necklace lace because it’s pretty long to begin with and I prefer a slightly shorter length.

My second favourite is a beauty product from sleek. It is their eyebrow palette (in the shade dark) which comes with a setting wax, powder, two mini application brushes and a set of mini tweezers. I think it’s such a great little compact case with everything I need in it and for about £8 I thought it was such good value. The packaging is gorgeous and I wish I bought it long before I did! My only criticism would be about the tweezers as I don’t think they are the best, and they are quite difficult to use with them being so small, but I have a bigger pair which I use so this didn’t bother me too much.

My third favourite is a lipstick from rimmel in the shade heart breaker. It’s a wonderful pink shade which I didn’t like too much to begin with but now it has really grown on me, especially for the autumn season. I think it’s really gorgeous.

Next up is a moisturiser from clinique. I only have a tester pot here as the product itself is really quite expensive but I think it’s worth buying. This is one of the best moisturisers I’ve used and even this small pot has lasted me quite a while. You don’t need to use very much at once but even so I don’t tend to use it every single day any more as I don’t want to use it all up! It leaves your skin feeling really hydrated and soft.

Next is a makeup palette that I’ve been wanting to try out for a while now, except every single time I’ve visited boots or superdrug it is sold out. All of the other Barry M palettes are usually in stock, it’s just this one that seems difficult to find. I very luckily stumbled upon it the other week. It is the second natural glow palette (with primer) from Barry M, and has some really quite nice colours included, reminiscent of the urban decay naked palettes. My particular favourites are the “shimmer” shades on the right hand side of the palette, especially the gold. Although the pigmentation may not be as great as a much more expensive palette like this and you don’t get a proper brush only two smaller ones which I’m not crazy about, you have to consider the price at about £6.50. With a price like that I’m not surprised that it was sold out every time I went.

My sixth favourite this month is batiste’s dry shampoo. I have previously tried the tresemme dry shampoo which was more expensive and not as good so I am really happy with this one from Batiste. It’s the original scent which if I’m, honest doesn’t have a particularly strong smell, but that’s completely fine with me.

My seventh and final favourite from the month of October are these shoes from Primark. I love the tassels on the front which I think are really cute. I believe they were £14 and I’ve been wearing them so much recently.

So those were all my monthly favourites for October!

Let me know what all of your favourite things were this month, and I’ll talk to you again soon.

I have been on the look out recently for some more budget friendly make up brushes and decided to try out the new H&M make up brush range. I picked up a selection of their brush collection including a Kabuki Brush, Shimmer powder brush, double ended smokey eye brush and make up sponge.

To start with, all of the brushes come in this lovely combination of light cream and rose gold which I really liked, with a small golden “by H&M ” signature on the brushes barrels. They come in simple packaging too. I have owned and have been using the brushes for about two weeks now so I feel pretty confident reviewing these.

Shimmer Powder Brush – £4.99

I have been using this brush in combination with the Soap & Glory Glow All Out highlighting powder which works really well, although could obviously be used for blushes or whatever you’d like really. It is extremely soft and I really like it although I don’t think it is the best of the range that I bought.

7/10

Smokey Eyes Brush – £2.99

I feel like this has a ridiculously low price compared to some similar products and works really well. I really like this double ended brush. The thicker end is really nice for blending and general application, the other end is a thin, angled brush and works perfectly for tight lining and under eye application of shadow. I bought a similar looking brush in Primark for £1 but the quality was not even comparable. The Primark brush has very stiff bristles, and just spreads shadow no where near as well as this H&M one. A very good brush for a very low price.

9/10

Kabuki Brush – £6.99

So this brush is slightly “pricier” than the rest of the range, but would still set you back far less than many other brands would. As soon as I got it out of the box I fell in love slightly with its extremely soft bristles. It honestly feels so so nice and I really love it. It makes putting powder on every morning so quick due to its large size.

9/10

Make up Sponge – £1.99

So this one isn’t a brush like the rest of the range, but a little sponge. It is probably a dupe of the beauty blender, but not owning one I can’t really compare. It isn’t all that soft, but doesn’t feel rough when you use it. It gives you a really flawless complexion that I love and makes putting on make up very easy and quick. The only downside that I have with this product is cleaning it. I have tried various methods and various different types of cleaner but still I find it very difficult to get out all of the make up in the sponge. I clean it every few days so I don’t let my make up build up so substantially that that could be the problem. It also smells a little funny when it’s being cleaned oddly enough, but thankfully this goes away when dry again. I feel it’s not as pink as it was and has faded slightly since I’ve been using and cleaning it. But nevertheless, it is still a really good makeup sponge, it may just be best to have a couple to avoid the same difficulties that I have with cleaning it!

7/10

I really, really like the H&M collection of make up brushes as an affordable, budget friendly option. I use each brush (and sponge) daily and each have made their way into my morning routine. I fully recommend these products, and would like to check out some of the other make-up items they have in store.

Every time I pop into my local Boots store I notice the Soap and Glory products with their unique and eye catching packaging and design, but have never tried it out until the other day. I picked up two make up items that I had been needing wanting: a highlighter and some new mascara. Here are the two things I got in their delightful packaging:

Personally I think they look gorgeous! So, to the review:

First up is the luminizing glow all out highlighting power. I really like the name and especially the way this powder is formed with the soap and glory name written into the powder. It does give the skin a nice glowy look and feel with some shimmer. I fell like it could be lighter to work better for my very air skin however even so I really like it and enjoy putting it on in the morning. The mirror in the packaging is great to pop into a purse or bag to carry it around with you to touch up during the day too. The top is magnetised also (which isn’t clear from the pictures) so that the top doesn’t just flap open!

8/10

Previously I had been using Rimmel’s waterproof 10x volume flash mascara which was fantastic, but perhaps due to it being waterproof made it very difficult to remove at night no matter what I used on it and caused a lot of my eye lashes to fall out. Obviously this wasn’t ideal so I looked for a replacement…which happened to be the Soap & Glory thick and fast mascara. As you can hopefully tell from the picture above, it has a fairly large wand. Usually I prefer a smaller wand in order to get in close to the bottom of my lashes (which the Rimmel mascara did have) although this one is still fairly good. I find it sometimes more difficult to coat my lashes all over, however I really like how they look after I’ve applied it and will definitely keep using it.

8/10

Soap & Glory have lived up to the reputation I had built up in my head and I will definitely be purchasing more of their products in the future. I find them a really interesting brand also and would love to learn more.

What are your favourite make up brands at the moment? Are there any brands you find particularly interesting?